FLPHG Manufacturers

Current Manufacturers

Manufacturing Power Harnesses is apparently a hard business in which to make a living, as the turnover is quite high. There are more
brands that are out of business, or have stopped production, than are currently being made. This is the list of those that are currently
active

Toni Roth - E-Lift and Power-Lift

A new German entry into the flphg market. Website is mostly in German, with a number of videos. It uses a number of innovative
design ideas and an EOS 100 engine which should provide
more power than the Radne. They also offer an electric model and a carbon trike.

Mosquito

The original Swedish motorized harness, on the market since the
late 1980's. The original models had old Keller style harnesses
and 10hp motors. The power was later increased to 15hp, although they
stayed with the old harness style until around 2000. This allowed
many other manufacturer's to get into the market, as the harness style on the
original Mosquito was quite cumbersome. Then they released the NRG
model which was greatly improved and has put it at least even with, if not
ahead, of much of the competition. It is front opening with
snap-buckles for the
chest and leg loops, and the controls have been stream-lined and made
more easily accessible. There is a folding prop option and there
are several harness sizes available.

Wasp

A British variation on the Mosquito. It originally came on the
market while the Mosquito was still using the old style harness, and improved
upon that with an easy front entry. The harness can be custom
made to your dimensions, and is also offered as a kit to
modify older Mosquitos - something worth considering
if you have an older Mosquito (or find a really good deal on
one).

This is a first class quality product, and they are continuing to
develop the unit and add options. They currently offer two models:

SP - a conventional Radne engine model

Venom - a more powerful model using the Vittorazi fly 100 Evo engine

The Vittorazi engine was also used by the Hidden
Mountain X1 harness, which was very useful for heavier pilots and higher altitudes.
Now that the X1 is no longer produced, the Venom is the only flphg unit that offers
the Vittorazi engine

Zenon by SkyGear

This harness comes from Cyprus. The unique feature of the
Zenon is that the harness and power plant are separate
pieces. You can free fly using just the harness, or attach
the motor unit to be able to fly with power. This also allows
more convenient transportation, as the two pieces will fit in
places (trunk, back seat) that a one-piece flphg unit would not fit.

Fillo (Czech)

Build Your Own

A number of pilots have built their own flphg units. If you have done so, or know of someone else who has done so, and you/they
are willing to provide information that may assist others, I will be happy to provide a link to it here. Also, links to engines,
props, other resources to build your own or repair existing units that are no longer supported

Wes Adams had produced a series of YouTube videos describing his building experiences:

Radne

Radne produces lightweight 2-cycle engines. The 120cc model is used by
all of the power harness manufacturers listed above. You can get parts
lists and numbers, specs, owner's manuals and other information from
their
web site. The site has been recently (as of 6/2003) updated and now
offers
encryption for secure ordering:
http://www.radne.se/Store/
A scan of the complete engine manual has been scanned and put in Adobe
PDF format:
Radne 120 Engine Manual
It
contains engine diagrams, parts lists, and maintenance recommendations.
It is about 2MB in size. Probably the best way to view the manual is to
click the right mouse button on the link above and then select "save
as"
to store the file on your computer. You can
download the Adobe
Acrobat Reader hereThe diagram in the manual
is for the pull-start
version of the engine - here is the Electric
Start Engine Diagram

Bolly Props

The Bolly folding prop was first introduced on Airtime's Explorer power harness. It's performance
characteristics and quality caused it to be adapted to many other flphg units as well. Replacement
blades (and possibly hubs) can still be obtained
direct from Bolly

Out of Production

These are flphg units no longer in production and no longer have an active web page. The links below are the last known links
for historical reference:

Doodlebug

THE DOODLEBUG IS OUT OF PRODUCTION AND LIKELY WILL NOT RETURN. From the manufacturer (April 2013):

We have ceased production on the Doodle Bug. It is sad but, we have to be able to sell enough
to justify keeping stock of the components.
We mainly manufacture the Dragon range of aircraft and sell Skyranger and Air Creation ultralights,
slightly better market although it is still very hard to make a living.

This is a British supine version of the powered harness and the only
harness made that does not use the prone flying position. The pilot flies
inside of the control bar, similar to the old “suprone”
harnesses. There are a number of enthusiastic owners of this model, who claim it is more
comfortable for extended flights, and there seem to be a fair number already in use, so they are relatively
easy to find in the used market.

Explorer LD

Originally an Australian copy of the original Mosquito, Airtime Products went on to develop
an improved LD model. This was a popular unit and there are often found in the used market. The Explorer model
introduced the Bolly prop, which has often been adapted to other units.
This is an OUTDATED LINK: http://www.airtimeproducts.com.au/

This link is for a pdf copy of the original model Explorer Manual
If anyone has a copy of the LD manual, I would be happy to host a copy here.

X1 by Hidden Mountain

This was a relatively recent entry to the
flphg world. Dave Little and Ken Osage were thinking
"outside the box" and developed a powered harness from scratch, with a
different power (Vittorazi) plant and other modifications. It
demonstrated significant improvements
in power and climb performance, and was the only unit to be made in the
USA. It also brought flphg capabilities to pilots living at higher
altitudes than was possible with the Radne powerplant.

Only a few units were made, and seldom remain on the market for long if one
becomes available. This is the OUTDATED LINK, left for historical reference:
http://www.hiddenmt.com

Raven

The Raven was originally an Italian model, and later came under German ownership. It has
also been sold with the name DV8. It used the same Radne
engine as all the others, but they claimed higher power and thrust values because of a special exhaust
system and other mods.

Booster

The Booster was relatively early on the scene, another British variation of the Mosquito that was
produced by Pegasus Aviation. It was one of the first to offer a folding
prop, had wheels instead of skids, and a chain drive instead of a belt. But the most notable feature was a hard shell
portion of the harness which made it possible to adapt some free flight harnesses to work with it.

After the Booster had been out of production for a couple of years, there was an attempt to revive it.
According to an email I received, "two enthusiastic British guys Simon and Neil
have taken the Solar Wings Booster activities into their own hands. For the latest info see
http://www.soarfoot.com".
That link remained active for awhile, but it too has since become a part of history